GUILTY OH - Two women & child killed, 13yo abducted, Apple Valley, 10 Nov 2010 #5

[crocus]

And the blood could be from the dog. They/LE have not said anything about results from tests on it.

 

[Wondergirl]

Audio from the 3 Pressers here:

audio

Audio from Sheriff Barber’s press conference (13:48) November 16, 2010
Audio from Sheriff Barber’s press conference (26:47) November 15, 2010
Audio from Sheriff Barber’s press conference (12:56) November 13, 2010

http://www.mountvernonnews.com/local/places/missing-persons

 

[Texas Mist]

Holly- on Levi's show - saying that MH took the mom & brother to prevent them from reporting Sarah missing

(this is her opinion)

She has no doubt the bodies will be found.

Richard saying that if MH was a planner, which he obviously isn't, said killers tend to dump bodies where they are familiar..LE will know where he goes & has been, will use cellphone pings.

Saying circle of people MH could be in contact w/ is small - rural area.

Holly agrees w/ Richard.

Richard said if MH is so smart he wouldn't stick out - and he's made himself an obvious weirdo, so he's no rocket scientist.

Holly says people may start remembering seeing MH around...thinks case will be solved w/o his help.

Levi asked about stalking & Holly says this will debunk any attempt at insanity defense....says truly insane people don't lie in wait & attack w/ so much pre-planning...it's more impulsive.

Richard saying he believes LE will find bodies w/o MH's help....says real high solvability factor in this case.

Levi asking Holly about MH putting hammock in tree to spy on neighbors...Holly again talking about diff. in being crazy & mentally ill...his behavior is crazy & MH is whacky, but he's not legally insane.

Levi has breaking news on Haleigh Cummings case....Lisa Croslin arrested for violating her probation. Richard is not surprised.

Levi signing off now.

*Note - y'all can still listen to this by replaying it.

ETA: Zahra's case was covered first so their discussion of this one is about halfway through....great show all the way around.

 

[crocus]

Have they checked the landfill for any of these area's garbage?

 

[Leila]

That area has been searched according to the FB site (Discussions). Of course we have no idea how thorough the search was since it appears it was private searches rather than LE. I wonder if dogs were brought into that area where all the victims live?

It hasn't been reported that MH was in the residence that I know of but imo.....I believe it's highly likely he may have been during at least one of the times LE did the wellness check.

I still keep thinking about Tina's friend/manager becoming so highly alarmed so quickly when she didn't show up at work. I can understand being concerned but the person was alarmed enough to request LE check on the residence right away. I wonder if Tina had expressed safety concerns recently to the friend/manager?

I feel this is an important aspect to this case. In most employment situations, when an employee doesn't show up for work, the natural assumption is that the employee is ill or a family member is ill, they overslept, or is having car trouble that's delaying their arrival at work.

In this case, the manager of the Dairy Queen contacted LE and asked for a wellness check to be done.

I find this highly unusual that someone would automatically assume that something had happened that called for the services of a police officer.

The manager of the Dairy Queen is a female and maybe she and Tina had a friendship outside of work and perhaps Tina had expressed concerns to her about something.

 

[Wondergirl]

I've posted before that I read that it might be because of winter coming and his electricity being turned off (insulation from the cold).

Are you asking because 1) he might have been planning another arson, or 2) didn't she find that unusual, or 3) whatever that is ?

Good point about the insulation thing. Yes, that makes more sense, that he filled the interior of his walls with leaves for insulation. Alot more sense than him thinking of himself as a squirrel. :waitasec:

As for the question for the ex, I think the answer to that is "all of the above!".

Did she find it unusual, the leaves lining his house? Did she know of his arson conviction?

Did the neighbours know of his arson convication? Wasn't anyone concerned AT ALL that this guy was lighting fires on a regular basis, after he had spent alot of jail time for that crime? :waitasec:

 

[Leila]

This is the direct quote from one article:


http://www2.nbc4i.com/news/2010/nov/15/26/knox-co-girl-found-alive-bound-no-word-3-others-ar-291229/

This could be interpreted to mean that there was blood, but not human, or that what they thought was blood was something else entirely.

JMO

Thanks................that's how I took it. It could be animal blood or some other substance that looked like dried blood.

 

[antiquegirl]

I wondered to about the size of the house for a single man. But - could be that it was a foreclosure and was bought cheaply?

It has been reported that MH's mother bought the house for him for $30,000. I was shocked when I heard this because where I'm from, you can't buy a clothes closet for that price. Maybe it's a fixer-upper. Also his girlfriend and her son had been living there before they broke up.

We learned from the prosecutor that his house was probably purchased for him by his mother.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/16/national/main7061311.shtml

After being released from prison he came to Knox County in 2007 and was able to obtain a $30,000 mortgage

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/16/national/main7061311.shtml

Not sure how accurate these reports are, but it's all I could find.

 

[Noway]

He had a tree trimming business. Where did he dispose of tree branches?

Correction: He did tree trimming work

"He would sit and listen to us up in a tree. He had a hammock and he would sit there and listen to us," she said. "He was just different. He was very different." Davis said Hoffman did tree trimming work and had built a fire Wednesday night in his backyard, where there was a mound of ashes Sunday with tree parts on it. She said he walked to Foundation Park almost every day and was a "nature person" who collected leaves.

http://www.denverpost.com/crime/ci_16618467

 

[belimom]

Can someone link me the 5 bedroom house link.

I would think 5 room house would be more fitting.

How would an he afford that morgage? Our house is four bedroom and 2 of us working full time pays the bills. We are not driving pretty cars.

I believe someone else quoted a source saying that his parents bought the 5BR home for $30,000 for him last year.

 

[Cazzie]

Good observations, everyone.

I haven't heard anything about LE searching Stephany's home for evidence, let alone what they found. Plus her children's welfare, lack of her timeline...for some reason(s), LE hasn't released anything about those items. Which is good for their safety and the investigation.

That makes me think that what they found (or didn't find) is significant. Could be just a wrong assumption, though.

 

[Noway]

I wonder if he had access to another vehicle to haul away tree debris. The vehicle photo LE released would not be a logical choice.

 

[SunGirl]

I'd look at other foreclosures in area. He might be aware that a house was empty. Some people just up and walk away from their homes ...

It would be a great if we knew where mh had worked as a a tree trimmer. Like which company(ies) and/or in which areas. From what has been made public so far, his neighbors didn't say that they saw him leaving the house at regular hours and/or with tools, or with a work truck. Maybe he advertised on Craiglist, got friends to recommend jobs, etc? Supposedly he grew up in Warren - that's a pretty large swath of country to cover - Mt. Vernon to Warren - even if mh had to spend 8 years in a Colorado prison, it's possible he knows of a lot of areas to spend time "alone".

 

[Soul125]

I read a post on the Maynard FB page about Tanner. Said he got out frequently and that sometimes a farmer from nearby would return him home.

FWIW

I had forgotten about the dog. Poor doggie, it sure seems like he is not coming home. He likely would have showed up somewhere by now if he had just ran off.

 

[tfrohning]

I would like to know if MH's house was "lined with leaves" when the ex-girlfriend and her son lived there a month ago?

I like to heard from this ex girlfriend but I sure she in shock right now and my prayers goes out to her too.

 

[antiquegirl]

I would like to know if MH's house was "lined with leaves" when the ex-girlfriend and her son lived there a month ago?

Does someone have a link please that uses this phrase "lined with leaves"? I'd really like to see it in context. Not sure why everyone is interpreting it as the leaves being inside the house. When I heard it, my only thought was that his house was surrounded by leaves outside.

 

[Teddysmom]

I am just guessing, but it may be he hid Stephanie's vehicle in the garage at the time of the crime so he wouldn't arouse suspicion. Somebody may have drove by wondering where she was and saw her vehicle in the driveway. Tina's truck in the driveway wouldn't arouse suspicion. As for moving her vehicle, Tina's truck may have been used in the crime because MH's vehicle was too small to take 3 people in it if he did something with them. JMO

Just a theory...What if he was stalking Stephanie? Her dad said she thought someone was following her. Maybe she parked her Jeep in the garage so it wouldn't be seen but he found her there anyway.

 

[Cazzie]

He had a tree trimming business. Where did he dispose of tree branches?

He worked for a tree trimming business and had been recently laid off(reportedly).

It's not unusual at all for people to burn trash and brush (safely, of course, and not during burn bans) in rural or even semi-rural areas.

But perhaps MH took advantage of that.

 

[Soul125]

He had a tree trimming business. Where did he dispose of tree branches?

I didn't realize he had a trimming business of his own. I thought he was unemployed and not working at the time of the incident. If he had a business, I wonder whose equipment he used for landscaping?

 

[Wondergirl]

This Mount Vernon website has alot of info that I have not seen discussed here.

OMG, look at this:

Those who said they knew Hoffman, paint a picture of a man with many eccentricities, whose behavior showed troubling changes over recent weeks.

“It’s crazy,” said Davis. “He seemed like a decent guy at first.” She is one of three mothers in the room who say their young sons have been to many sleepovers at Hoffman’s house.

“He told me ‘he [Hoffman] jumped with us on the trampoline and made popcorn,” said mother Leanda Cline.

Cline and Davis, along with Shara Davis of Mount Vernon, all have boys who played football with the eight-year-old son of Hoffman’s former girlfriend, a Mount Vernon woman the group declined to identify. Davis, who said she remains close friends with Hoffman’s former girlfriend, said the woman moved out about three to four weeks ago after an alleged domestic violence incident.

“He choked her,” Davis said. “And she warned us to keep our kids away from him.”

Davis said after months of sleepovers, accepting rides from Hoffman and spending time with him socially, his behavior became disturbing.

“His two dogs disappeared,” said Donna. “I believe in my heart that he killed those dogs,” she said tearfully, explaining that Hoffman’s explanations for what happened to the dogs while his girlfriend was out of town did not make sense.

“That’s when we started pulling back,” she said of her family’s relationship with Hoffman.

Before they believed his behavior became more erratic, she said her daughter,a 14-year-old, accepted a ride home from Hoffman last winter after a movie.

“I let my daughter ride home alone with him,” she said regretfully.

“It was weird,” Fisher said of the ride. “We didn’t take the main roads back, we took the back roads. I came home and told my mom he made me uncomfortable.”
Ron Fowler, Donna’s live-in boyfriend, said he witnessed Hoffman setting squirrel traps in his backyard.

“We were feeding the squirrels, and he killed them,” Fowler said.

Donna said Hoffman’s ex-girlfriend reported he took the squirrels inside to eat them
.
Shara Davis, Donna Davis, and Cline all grew up on Columbus Road, but admit they no longer feel safe there, citing many changes to the neighborhood.

They said several weeks before this incident they feared for Hoffman’s girlfriend’s safety.

“She always had to be real quiet when she came over, so he wouldn’t hear her,” Fisher said.

Donna said Hoffman was skilled with computers, and spent many hours on his before the electricity and gas were shut off to his house.

She said Hoffman told her he had served five years for a “robbery gone bad” in Colorado.

“I had asked him if he’d ever been locked up because he was so observant like people from prison are,” Donna said.
http://www.mountvernonnews.com/local/10/11/16/neighbors-hoffman-eccentric-troubled